Only Mortal
by valarauka
Summary: Individually, they were formidable; together, they were invincible. They had no reason not to believe that Team Seven would last forever. AUish, no pairings, probably oneshot.


... I dunno. I just felt like writing this. Which is strange because I normally don't like writing. Probably it's because I have homework to do. Having stuff to do always motivates me to do other things.  
Also because I wanted a story like this and I'm too lazy to go find one.

Disclaimer: All the named characters belong to Kishimoto.

Disclaimer 2: If you're looking for a cheerful story, go away. If you want a happy ending, go away. If you're looking for something by a very experienced fanfic writer, you go away too, I would hate to disappoint you. This is my first time writing a fanfic.

Rated Teen for violence and a couple naughty words.

Is everyone sufficiently warned? Okay, then, on with the story.

* * *

They were too strong. 

Normally, enemies of that caliber would be no problem for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Barely out of their teens, the members of Team 7 were three of the most powerful shinobi the world has ever known. Individually, they were formidable; together, they were invincible. Or so they thought.

But now they found themselves each surrounded by several enemy ninjas of unknown affiliation and astonishing strength. They had been separated during the course of battle, barely able to counterattack between dodges and parries, and in any case too far away to help their teammates.

How could this have happened? It was supposed to be a nice, simple, B-ranked mission: escort a prominent daimyo from the Lightning country back to his home. Easy. They did this sort of thing every other week. And they'd done it too, they weren't even in some unknown dangerous land, they were on their way home and almost there. They had thought to get there in another few hours.

"_We've been set up,_" thought Naruto dully, evading a slash across his midsection. "_They were waiting for us, wonder where they're from, must be a rogue group or something..._"

But all this was absent musings, useless really. Did it even matter for him now? It was perfectly possible that they'd all die here. So much for the great Team 7. They'd sent for reinforcements half an hour ago, but there was no reason to think they'd arrive in time.

He thought briefly of the almost limitless power he carried with him, but rejected it almost instantly. Kakashi had warned him that the seal had become unstable over the years. If Naruto began to draw on the Kyuubi's chakra, he may end up freeing the Kyuubi entirely. Better to die here, than to break the seal and unleash the Kyuubi, so close to Konoha.

And so he desperately fought on, minimizing his movements to conserve strength and speed so that the weapons almost grazed his skin. He ducked to avoid a punch to the face, dodged sideways and blocked a sword with a kunai, flipped over one enemy and pushed him forward into the others, winced as a shuriken nicked his ear...

"_Sakura!_" Sasuke's stricken voice sliced through the air, sharper than his sword, and time slowed almost to a stop. Naruto whirled around, feeling as though he were swimming through molasses, knowing what he would see before he saw it.

An enemy ninja stood about seventy feet away, obviously just having used a jutsu; his fingers were still locked in a hand-seal. Sakura was around fifteen feet away from her opponent. She wasn't fighting anymore, and despite the distance, Naruto could see that she would never fight again. She was falling, falling impossibly slowly, falling with those horrible empty eyes that Naruto had seen too many times on the battlefield but never thought he'd see on his teammate.

It seemed to take hours, days for her to hit the ground. Her opponent approached her body with a sword; Sasuke was rushing at her with incredible speed, but he was too late, he could not save her like he'd once saved Naruto.

Naruto's mind was fragmented, and he thought he heard voices, but in his head, not in his vaguely stinging ear. The first was an unending wail of grief. It had no words; words were not strong enough to speak of Sakura's death. The second was muttering feverishly, "_No, no, she's fine, can't you see that, she's a medic-nin and she can take care of herself, she's doing this on purpose, it looks bad to you but she knows what she's doing..._" The last was not his own, but was uncomfortably familiar. It whispered in his head, at once terrifying and seducing...

"_You can do it... Avenge her, make them pay... Kill them, kill them all, make them hurt like you do... You can do it, I will help you..._"

The hot, corrosive power of the Kyuubi was rising in him. It burned him, but he deserved it, he should burn for failing to protect her when she needed him. He welcomed the power, drew it out, reached for more and more of the power that would free him from the knowledge that Sakura was dead, it would burn his thoughts away and help him make things right, he would kill them, make them _pay_, make them _bleed_, make them burn, burn them to ashes for daring to harm someone so close to his heart.

With a blistering scream that was also a sigh of relief, he let consciousness slip away and lost himself to the white-hot energy surging from his body.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Sasuke knew it was too late. He knew that she was dead before she hit the ground. But her foe was walking purposefully towards her, and so he rushed blindly in her direction, because he'd be damned before he let her body be defiled. She would be honored as a heroine and receive a proper burial to lay her to rest. He reached her, bent over her, touched her face. How could she be dead? Birds sang cheerfully in a bright, cloudless sky, and under the stench of blood was the fragrance of spring. How could she have been allowed to die on a beautiful day that promised life and love and happiness?

He started as an inhuman cry assailed him from Naruto's direction. He turned to see Naruto's body shrouded in a red haze that became thicker every moment. The chakra surrounded his body formed a tail, then two, three, four, five, six... How many tails? Sasuke couldn't count them in the writhing mass of chakra. But he knew it was more than enough, too many, in fact, because Naruto's skin was floating off his body and the orange-red cloak of chakra was staining deep scarlet with Naruto's blood. It was too many, and while Sasuke had no doubt that Naruto in this form could obliterate the enemy, he felt certain that Naruto would die from it.

_"Am I to lose everyone? Mother, father... Sakura... Naruto..."_

Their opponents had paused to witness Naruto's transformation. Now they were approaching again. Sasuke lifted Sakura's body and leapt away, settled her in a niche that would be relatively easy to defend.

Naruto by now was unrecognizable as himself, or even as a human. As Sasuke parried blow after blow, he was aware that Naruto had killed an enemy with a few slashes of his claws, and knocked another one out by striking him down with his tails. Both fallen enemies had severe burns. In a short time, the only enemy left was the one who had cast the deadly jutsu. Naruto extended a claw of chakra and seized the attacker, who slashed uselessly at the "arm". Blisters developed all over his body, and his struggles became weaker and weaker and Naruto pulled him away from Sasuke. Naruto then went into frenzy, clawing furiously at the body, biting the head off, smashing it against the ground and splattering the blood and brains... Sasuke felt he would be sick. This was not Naruto, it could not be Naruto. Where was he, the boy who was his best friend and teammate? He looked at the creature before him, now flinging torn limbs in various directions and tried to find Naruto in it. There, behind the blood and the chakra. So barely visible, but Sasuke could see him. Kind of.

Naruto was... _laughing_. He was undeniably laughing, laughing maniacally, gleefully at the carnage before him.

Sasuke _was_ sick then, and the creature that was Naruto suddenly looked directly at him. Sasuke stared into the eyes that spoke of immeasurable destruction with his own Sharingan eyes, and wondered, _"Can he recognize me? Does he know who I am? Or is he going to do _that_ to me?"_

They stayed like that for what seemed like a long time, Sasuke silently willing Naruto to change back into himself. Without warning, thick cords of wood erupted out of the ground, twining themselves around Naruto's body. Sasuke slumped down against a rock. Reinforcements had finally arrived, and Yamato was with them. A sympathetic hand on his shoulder; that was Kakashi. Two other Jounin, a woman with short brown hair and a man who appeared to be a medic-nin. Yamato and the medic-nin headed straight for Naruto.Within the cage of wood, the boiling chakra calmed and diminished, until Naruto's own body lay on the ground, seeming fragile and weak in comparison. It was a horrible sight, having been stripped of skin and smeared with blood. The grip on Sasuke's shoulder tightened. Kakashi saw it too. Sasuke waited until the woman joined her two companions at Naruto's side.

"You're _late_, Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke bit out, envenomed each syllable, as though he could assuage his grief by passing it on to his old teacher. "I suppose you got lost on the road of life again? Or perhaps you needed to help an old lady across a street on your way here?"

"Sasuke-" Kakashi began, but Sasuke cut him off, pulling himself shakily to his feet.

"Don't give me some lame excuse! Why can't you be on time for once, just _once_, for your team? We needed you, and you were off visiting your friend's grave. Well, guess what?" Sasuke drew in an unsteady breath. "Thanks to you, I have some dead best friends of my own to visit!"

Sasuke knew he was being irrational, that he was in hysterics, that Kakashi couldn't have been expected to come earlier than he did. In fact he had arrived sooner than expected. But he _hurt_ everywhere, it hurt like he couldn't believe, and he needed to blame someone for it.

Kakashi waited until Sasuke finished his tirade, then spoke in an infuriatingly calm voice. "Sasuke, you are not in your right mind now, and-"

"Maybe I don't _want_ to be in my right mind!" Sasuke hissed. "Or maybe _you're_ the one not in your right mind. Sakura is dead, and Naruto is dead, and _you don't fucking give a damn._" He beat ineffectually at the rocks, bloodying his knuckles. Kakashi stood still and silent.

Yamato and the two others returned. Yamato was carrying Naruto's body in his arms. "We may be able to save him. We have to get back to Konoha immediately."

And so the five of them left the battlefield, Naruto's body in Yamato's arms and Sakura's in Kakashi's, and Sasuke leaning heavily on the other two Jounin. Team Seven, the light and the hope of their generation, was extinguished.

* * *

...  
So yeah. There you go. I don't know if I should continue this or not. 

I know this is not a good way to write, but I made it up as I went along. I just wanted to write about Naruto going 7- or 8-tails, and everything else was just an excuse to write about it.  
I actually originally wanted to write about Sasuke being scared of Naruto. If I continue this, I'll add that... but honestly, it kind of depresses me writing about it.

This is my first fic, so I need a lot of advice! Not even just about the writing, stuff about too, like rating and category... Man I feel dumb. So yeah, tell me all the ways I messed up! (But be nice about it please D)


End file.
